Germany Sets New Record, Generating 74 Percent of Energy Needs from Renewable Energy

On Sunday, Germany's impressive streak of renewable energy milestones continued, with renewable energy generation surging to a record portion -- nearly 75 percent -- of the country's overall energy demand by midday.  With wind and solar in particular filling such a huge portion of the country's power demand, electricity prices actually dipped into the negative for much of the afternoon, according to Renewables International.

In the first quarter of 2014, renewable energy sources met a record 27 percent of the country's electricity demand, thanks to additional installations and favorable weather.  "Renewable generators produced 40.2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, up from 35.7 billion kilowatt-hours in the same period last year," Bloomberg reported.  Much of the country's renewable energy growth has occurred in the past decade and, as a point of comparison, Germany's 27 percent is double the approximately 13 percent of U.S. electricity supply powered by renewables as of November 2013.

Observers say the records will keep coming as Germany continues its Energiewende, or energy transformation, which aims to power the country almost entirely on renewable sources by 2050.

"Once again, it was demonstrated that a modern electricity system such as the German one can already accept large penetration rates of variable but predictable renewable energy sources such as wind and solar PV power," said Bernard Chabot, a renewable energy consultant based in France, via email.  "In fact there are no technical and economic obstacles to go first to 20 percent of annual electricity demand penetration rate from a combination of those two technologies, then 50 percent and beyond by combining them with other renewables and energy efficiency measures and some progressive storage solutions at a modest level."

Germany Sets New Record, Generating 74 Percent of Energy Needs from Renewable Energy